Escapes WEEKENDER
M
y fellow tourists and I are trekking along Mexico’s Pacific coast in the dark. About a mile from Playa Viva Resort, we find an Italian marine biologist and a team of men gathering
Destinations like Mexico and Hawai‘i offer visitors the chance to leave their vacation spots better than they found them—but barriers to truly environmentally friendly travel remain BY MICHELE BIGLEY Is Regenerative Travel the Future of Tourism?
freshly hatched sea turtles into a bucket. The biologist explains that the resort has trained these men, former poachers, to protect the turtles instead of hunting them. Our fees help fund their work. She adds that the team has been up most of the night rehoming nests to keep the turtles safe from the poachers, plus the birds and badgers who eat the eggs. As the sunrise sprays pink across the sky, each of us receives a wooden bowl. Inside, a tiny sea turtle scrambles to escape. We’re instructed to stand a few feet from the waves and avoid touching our turtle as we tip the bowl and release the baby onto the sand. My chest puffs with pride as I holler, trying to scare away lurking seagulls and cheer on the babies scuttling to the water. Every traveler I spoke to during my time at Playa Viva, a small, off-the-grid beachfront resort about an hour south of Zihuatanejo, counts their participation in the turtle protection program as a highlight of their trip. That’s saying a lot. A certified B-Corp, Playa Viva aims to minimize its impact on the land, water, and food systems while also bolstering the local Juluchuca community through education, health, and economic empowerment. Treehouses have been constructed with responsibly
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